Online Research Resources

Citing the Read-Write Web

The Internet makes millions of images, videos, and audio clips available for students to use in their projects, providing rich examples and evidence. Many of the resources available on the Internet, however, have some form of copyright protection. Under certain circumstances, students and educators can use these resources under the protection of the Fair Use provisions of the 1976 Copyright Law; however, students and educators do not have carte blanche to use these resources in any way they choose. This makes the citation process more in depth than ever before.

Understanding Copyright and Fair Use

The Internet has developed much faster than intellectual property law, and it can be hard to apply older Copyright Fair Use guidelines to the new world of the Internet. We know it's not always easy to adhere to Fair Use policies, so here are a few simple practices that can help:

Understanding Creative Commons Licenses

The Internet makes millions of images, videos, and audio clips available for students to use in their projects, providing rich examples and evidence. Many of the resources available on the Internet, however, have some form of copyright protection. Under certain circumstances, students and educators can use these resources under the protection of the Fair Use provisions of the 1976 Copyright Law; however, students and educators do not have carte blanche to use these resources in any way they choose (below, we discuss some basic principles of this conceptually complex field.)

One strategy as an educator for dealing with the complexities of copyright is to devote time to teaching it and to helping students understand their rights under fair use and the rights of copyright holders. Another strategy is to direct students to photos, music, video and other resources that have been posted online by people who want their work to be reused, remixed, and reinvigorated.

Finding Public Domain Images for Multimedia Projects

If you are planning to show copyright images within the confines of your classroom then your usage more than likely falls within the scope of educational “fair use.” Mind you, more and more educators are making their (or their students) presentations available online, and this practice raises some important copyright issues. If you make your PowerPoint publicly accessible on the Internet without the express written permission of the authors of the copyrighted images, then you have most likely infringed on copyright protection.